The rise of smart textile wearables could mean that the industry will be worth over $130 billion by 2025. It is being strengthened by advances in fields such as nanotechnology, organic electronics (also known as plastic electronics) and conducting polymers that are creating a range of textile-based technologies with the ability to sense and react to the world around them.

Called the 4th industrial revolution by some, smart textile companies represent a significant opportunity for manufacturers to use advanced materials in their manufacturing. The great thing is that Toray, Panasonic, Covestro, DuPont and Toyobo are already supplying the necessary materials, while researchers are creating sensing and energy storage technologies, from flexible batteries to graphene supercapacitors. It’s these components that have been predicted to have the potential to power tomorrow’s wearables.

As Textiles and Computing Converge…

As textiles and computing converge, an elaborate market research report written by absolutereports.com has been released. The authors of the report have been monitoring nanotechnology and smart textiles for over a decade. In that time they have collected a lot of information, that has been collated in a report, titled ‘Nanotechnology in Smart Textiles and Wearables Market’.

Focusing on Asia, US and Europe, they highlighted the evolution of wearable technologies, defining types of smart fabrics, factors affecting the adoption of smart textiles and investment feasibility. On the facts and figures, Yogesh Pallelu, Business Development manager of Absolutereports.com, shared with FashNerd.com “This report will help you take informed decisions, understand opportunities, plan effective business strategies, plan new projects, analyze drivers and restraints and give you a vision on the industry forecast.”

Image Source: Thread in Motion

Breaking down their report, researchers at absolutereports.com looked at StretchSense Energy Harvesting Kit and NASA Environmental Sensing Fibers. They also looked at Powertextiles, Sphelar Power Corp Solar Textiles, Ohmatex and Powerweave, which all comes under the Solar umbrella. When it comes to fashion, they have explored 1st Generation Technologies (Cute Circuit LED Couture), 2nd Generation Technologies (Covestro Luminous Clothing), and 3rd Generation Technologies (The Unseen Temperature Sensitive Dyes). And fabrics, they focused on conductive Fibers like Circuitex Silver Coated Nylon, Textronics Yarns and Fibres, Novonic Elastic Conductive Yarn and Copper Coated Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers. The report covered a lot of ground, so it is worth mentioning that they also included Periosteum Based Textile, Medical Textiles, Home Textiles, Military/Defence Textiles, Technical Textile, Pressure Sensing Fibers and Photochromic Textiles.

The most interesting findings in their report include finding out that smart textiles will overtake those in apparel within six years. That the compound annual growth rates will range from 14% in to 167% depending on the application. Lastly, that the value of nanomaterials used by the global textile industry will rise sharply, a change that will be driven by the additional functionality demanded by smart textiles and wearables.

Muchaneta Kapfunde

Founding editor-in-chief & WearableTechStylist of FashNerd.com has worked in the fashion industry for over 14 years. She is currently one of the leading influencers speaking and writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She also contributes to other digital news sites like Wareable.